Space-technological and architectural methodology and process towards design of long-term habitats for scientific...

Centered on the core idea of long duration habitat design for research crew on Mars, the Martian Habitat Units (MHUs) are designed as a cluster of 10 units each with the maximum capacity of 9 crew members to live and carry on with the local challenges of scientific and exploratory life, while enjoying their lives as intellectual, social individuals in the harsh environment of Mars for durations in the order of magnitude of several years. This approach to the concept of a living environment in sharp contradiction to that of a shelter with the minimal capabilities to meet the requirements of terrestrial life to the point of survival, has led the outcoming design to be a fulfilling environment for the inhabitants of the units to evolve and thrive culturally, while being on a years-long mission. This manuscript provides detailed insight on the lessons learned of the aforementioned comprehensive design attempt with, but not limited to, the following core concerns: •The initial stand-point of such a design procedure relies on an ever increasing and comprehensive list of concerns, be it classically discussed in the literature and predictable, or unforeseen on the face of it, but to be prevented anyhow. The manuscript discusses the most crucial ones of such criteria/concerns.•The infamous saying of "Whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong" demands a rather complex level of redundancies in all layers of the design and the thought procedure behind its all aspects. The manuscript addresses the adequate steps towards its realization.•Modularity in all layers of the design plays a key role in reducing construction, maintenance, and installation costs, as for any deep space mission the mentioned expenses are astronomically high themselves. The manuscript presents our solution for geometric modularity of the design.